Huxley, Aldous - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics

Science and Literature

Huxley believed it was crucial to connect science and literature. Indeed, his novel Point Counter Point (1928) has been described as an "application of the theory of relativity to the art of fiction" (Deery 1996, p. 31). But he also felt it mistaken to define literary theory as a progressive, systematic, and verifiable body of knowledge employing the scientific method.

Huxley sought to reclaim a unified human experience by achieving the proper balance between different forms of knowledge. In this respect, he was the intellectual descendant of the debates about science and humanism held between his grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895), and his great uncle, Matthew Arnold (1822–1888). The issue was particularly impelling because the secularization of society placed a great burden on literature to uphold the humanist tradition just when scientific discoveries were undermining traditional understandings of the world and the human place within it.